Co-operative Bank leads Kenya’s commercial banks in online search visibility, according to an analysis by iX ML Analytics, a data science and artificial intelligence firm based in Accra, Ghana, that looked at 38 banks across 41 urban centres over 40 weeks between January and September 2026.
The study, shared by Bernard Okyere of iX ML Analytics, measures what it calls a Share of Search Interest score against the market leader. Co-op Bank scored 100, followed by Absa Bank at 61.24, Equity Bank at 45.90 and KCB Bank at 37.96. Family Bank came fifth at 26.42, with NCBA Bank at 21.31 and I&M Bank at 14.15 in sixth and seventh place.
The analysis found that 12 banks recorded no measurable search interest relative to the leader, among them Ecobank Kenya, Gulf African Bank and UBA Kenya, which points to a wide gap in the visibility of smaller and foreign-owned lenders.
Co-op Bank’s lead varied by location. Its share was 80 percent in Maua, 82 percent in Siaya and 81 percent in Mariakani, while in Migori it was 47 percent and in Eldoret 42 percent. The study also recorded a surge in interest in several lenders in the week of July 26, 2026, with Credit Bank rising 23-fold to 48 from a baseline of about 2.1.
Co-op Bank also led its peers on social media, with 2.2 million followers on Facebook, 744,900 on X, 468,000 on TikTok and 88,000 on YouTube as of June 2026.
The result is in line with the bank’s size. Co-op is Kenya’s third-largest bank by market share, at 9.4 percent in 2025 according to the Central Bank of Kenya, behind KCB and Equity.
Search interest is not a measure of customers or profitability, but analysts see it as a gauge of brand visibility as more banking moves online and customers research products on their phones before they choose a lender.
